“Enjoy a light, social high,” says the funky bottle of California Dreamin’ cannabis -infused sparkling pomegranate juice. Launching today at Y Combinator Demo Day, California Dreamin’ is serving up an alcohol alternative that still gets you lit, but without the same hangover or health issues. Each bottle contains 10 milligrams of THC — an industry-standard […]

After turning back the clock and exploring ancient Egypt in Assassin's Creed Origins last year, it appears that Ubisoft will keep the series a millennium or two in the past with its next entry. ComicBook.com reports that Assassin's Creed will travel to ancient Greece when the series returns from a two-year hiatus next fall.
Liam Robertson cautions everyone to take the report with a grain of salt, but notes that rumors of Assassin's Creed going Greek have been spreading for years. In fact, Robe...

Facebook's former VP of ads has weighed in on the ongoing disaster involving his company's apparent negligence in allowing data on as many as 50 million users to be used for nefarious purposes by Cambridge Analytica. In a post on (what else) Facebook, Andrew "Boz" Bosworth gave variations on the line we've come to expect from tech in these situations: They're not supposed to do that, and anyway how could we have known?

If you bought an original PlayStation 3 (the "fat" one, before the PS3 Slim came out) between November 1, 2006, and April 1, 2010 in the United States, I have some good news. Sony recently agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit relating to the "Other OS" feature that the company deleted from the PS3, so anyone who purchased a qualifying device over that four-year period is owed $65.
Back when Sony first launched the PS3, it flirted with the idea of making the new PlayStation more than just a ...

While it sometimes feels like everyone has a podcast nowadays, the truth is that most Americans still don’t listen to podcasts regularly. The Y Combinator-backed team behind The Podcast App is planning to change that. And yes, that’s the app’s real name. Co-founder and CEO Martín Siniawski argued that most existing podcast apps were built years ago, “when […]

Instagram’s next big Stories feature could let you compliment or trash talk other people’s feed posts, or embed a “see post” button to promote your own. A TechCrunch reader sent us these screenshots of the new feature, which Instagram confirmed to us is appearing to a small subset of users. "We’re always testing ways to […]

Virtual and augmented reality company Magic Leap has finally allowed developers to start producing content for its Magic Leap One Lightwear AR goggles and wearable computer, using GDC to launch its developer portal containing a software development kit and development guidelines.

If you have an iPhone X and you don't use a protective case, you're insane. Sorry, but it's true. The iPhone X is the most fragile iPhone Apple has ever made, and it's also the most expensive iPhone Apple has ever made. If you drop it and it lands on anything other than thick carpet or a pillow, it's probably going to break. For that reason, you absolutely need a case. Of course, you've already spent $1,000 or more on your iPhone X, so you might not want to shell out a lot more for a...

Whether you need a spare card for your dash cam, your GoPro, your Switch, or anything else, Samsung's 64GB and 128GB cards are both on sale today. I have the 128GB card in my own Switch, and it's been great. Read more...

Tesla is moving on to smaller, quicker things, but the fight to unseat the Model S as the world's supreme electric sedan rages on. And it consists largely of startups you've never heard of before and may very well never hear about again after the first time reading their names. Faraday Future. Leeco. Lucid Motors. You can add LVCHI Auto to the list after its coming out at the Geneva Motor Show, where the Shanghai-based newcomer showed off its sharp, coach-doored 992-hp four-door fast

An anonymous reader writes: Twitter plans to ban most cryptocurrency-related ads in the next few weeks, as Sky News first reported and a source confirms to Axios. Why it matters: The recent boom in cryptocurrencies and digital tokens has unsurprisingly attracted some fraudsters. Twitter is following in the footsteps of Facebook and Google, though it's been having its own problems with accounts promoting scams.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.

If you're ready to upgrade to a new Android phone but want to save as much money as possible while doing so, look no further than Google's latest Pixel 2 XL promotion. From March 18th at 12 AM PT, and March 31st at 11:59 PM PT, consumers who purchase the newest flagship from Google will be eligible to receive $200 back as a statement credit through Google Store Financing, as long as the consumer has an account in good standing.
In addition to the $200, Google is also giving away a free 18W...

One of the best features of the YouTube mobile app on iOS and Android is the ability to minimize the video while it is playing and continue browsing the site. It's one of several convenient features that has been exclusive to mobile, but according to a report from 9to5Google, YouTube has begun testing picture-in-picture functionality on the desktop version of the website as well, although Google has yet to make any official announcements.
9to5Google claims that YouTube is currently A/B testing

Joe_Dragon writes: Last night a woman was struck by an autonomous Uber vehicle in Tempe, Arizona. She later died of her injuries in the hospital. The deadly collision -- reported by ABC15 and later confirmed to Gizmodo by Uber and Tempe police -- took place around 10PM at the intersection Mill Avenue and Curry Road. Autonomous vehicle developers often test drive at night, during storms, and other challenging conditions to help their vehicles learn to navigate in a variety of environments. Accord

Microsoft is joining Red Hat, Facebook, Google and IBM in committing to extending right to "cure" open source licensing noncompliance before taking legal measures. From a report: On March 19, officials from Microsoft -- along with CA Technologies, Cisco, HPE, SAP and SUSE -- said they'd work with open together with the already-committed vendors to provide more "predictability" for users of open source software. "The large ecosystems of projects using the GPLv2 and LGPLv2.x licenses will benefit

Mint developers say they feel the app-launching time on the Linux distro seemed slow when using the Cinnamon desktop environment. So, they are working on fixing it. BetaNews reports: Windows build time was four times slower with Cinnamon compared to Metacity, while recovery time was nearly four times slower too. So yes, app-launching on Cinnamon -- as of today -- is slow comparatively. The big benefit to pinpointing a problem, however, is that it is the first step in solving it. And so, Linux Mi

A whistleblower at data analytics company Cambridge Analytica says the UK firm received more than 50 million Facebook user profiles without user consent and the data was later used for political gain. CNET's Ian Sherr explains.

IBM is hard at work on the problem of ubiquitous computing, and its approach, understandably enough, is to make a computer small enough that you might mistake it for a grain of sand. Eventually these omnipresent tiny computers could help authenticate products, track medications, and more.

Color is looking to add a new test to its line of genetic testing, this time focusing on hereditary factors that may affect a person’s chance for being prone to cardiovascular complications like arrhythmia and cardiomyopathy. Called the heart health test, Color’s new test looks to isolate the genes that can be partially responsible for […]

An anonymous reader shares a report: As soon as the first robot arrived at a FedEx shipping hub in the heart of North Carolina tobacco country early last year, talk of pink slips was in the air. Workers had been driving the "tuggers" that navigated large and irregular items across the vast concrete floor of the 630,000-square-foot freight depot since it opened in 2011. Their initial robotic colleague drew a three-dimensional digital map of the place as it tugged freight around. A few months late

An anonymous reader shares a report: This spring, the National Institutes of Health will start recruiting participants for one of the most ambitious medical projects ever envisioned. The goal is to find one million people in the United States, from all walks of life and all racial and ethnic groups, who are willing to have their genomes sequenced, and to provide their medical records and regular blood samples. They may choose to wear devices that continuously monitor physical activity, perhaps e

Earlier today, news broke of a fatal crash involving one of Uber’s self-driving cars in Tempe, Arizona. In response, Uber halted its self-driving car programs where it currently operates, including in Pittsburgh, Toronto, San Francisco and Phoenix. The U.S. Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Tempe Mayor Mark Mitchell and others have since […]

University of Cambridge professor Aleksandr Kogan told colleagues in an email this weekend that he'd volunteer to testify before Congress about his role in Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal, according to CNN. House and Senate Democrats are prepared to accept Dr. Kogan's offer.Read more...

Whistleblower revealed that the company he was working for was able to use build profiles on tens of millions of Americans and then target them for electoral purposes, by exploiting how Facebook shared data with third-party companies.

No matter how wrong you are or how petty the infraction, the only rule of an online slapfight is to never, ever back down. As a result, a Russian novel's worth of insults have been written on Our Cursed Internet, ranging from incisive quips to sourced-and-cited takedowns. For two Redditors with strong feelings and a…Read more...

An anonymous reader writes: Even if Twitter hasn't invested much in anti-bot software, some of its most technically proficient users have. They're writing and refining code that can use Twitter's public application programming interface, or API, as well as Google and other online interfaces, to ferret out fake accounts and bad actors. The effort, at least among the researchers I spoke with, has begun with hunting bots designed to promote pornographic material -- a type of fake account that is pa

Female minds have been shaping science fiction since the dawn of the genre. In fact, you could argue that Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is one of the first true science fiction novels, dealing with […]
The post 11 Female Sci-Fi Authors You Need To Read appeared first on Geek.com.

These weather-resistant remote outlet switches rely on an RF remote instead of Wi-Fi, so you can't control them with your phone or Alexa. But at just $26 for a two-pack (each of which has two outlets), it might be all you need to control, say, outdoor string lights, fans, or heaters. Just use promo code H69R9FX9 at…Read more...

To change the face of your industry, your creative field is one thing. To do so when the system you're working within isn't built to accommodate you is another thing entirely. We take […]
The post 11 Female Directors Who Followed Their Own Rules appeared first on Geek.com.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft is bringing support for the new HEIF image format to Windows 10. First popularized by Apple with iOS 11, HEIF is a new image format that uses less storage space while preserving image quality. The new image format is used by default on Apple's iPhone X and other devices running iOS 11. While Microsoft's online services like OneDrive already supported HEIF since the release of iOS 11, Windows 10 didn't natively support the new format as of yet. But w

Some YouTube users on the web have been opted in to a test of a new picture-in-picture mode, which allows you to continue watching a YouTube video in a small window even as you navigate elsewhere on YouTube’s website. A similar feature already exists today on YouTube’s app for both iOS and Android. The site […]

People often dress up to go to the theater but with this project, the theater itself is looking rather dapper. Designed by high-profile firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the new National Theatre of Albania will resemble an oversized bow tie and offer a view of backstage with glazed facades.
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Continue Reading BIG's bow tie-shaped theater offers a glimpse behind the scenes
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Walmart this morning announced a partnership with home services provider Handy, which will allow customers to purchase in-home installation and assembly assistance in over 2,000 of Walmart’s stores. News of the deal follows IKEA’s recent launch of its own in-home assembly service through TaskRabbit. It will also challenge Amazon’s growing Home Services business, which includes assembly […]

This upcoming Wednesday, the European Commission is expected to reveal a tax proposal would require digital media companies -- including Apple -- to pay based on where they generate revenue, rather than where they choose to locate their European headquarters.

Camille Boyer and cinematographer Nik Mirus worked with a Montreal-based agency called Caravane to create a surreal short film called Club Palace. It looks like a computer animation student's final-year project, but in reality it was all filmed using real-life miniatures and clever practical effects.Read more...

Device insurance provider SquareTrade recently ran its usual barrage of stress tests on Samsung's Galaxy S9 and S9+ handsets, saying that while the phones are more durable than Apple's iPhone X, they still crack when dropped.

The most recent trailer for Avengers: Infinity War revealed more of Thanos' plan, and its own connections to the events of one of the comics that inspired the film in the first place, The Infinity Gauntlet. There's one brief moment in the 1991 comic, however, that likely wouldn't go down well with a certain President…Read more...

Facebook is using us. It is actively giving away our information. It is creating an echo chamber in the name of connection. It surfaces the divisive and destroys the real reason we began using social media in the first place – human connection. It is a cancer. I’ve begun the slow process of weaning myself […]

Sure, you can share your friends' posts on your Facebook page, or retweet a hot take to your followers on Twitter, but Instagram has been relatively conservative when it comes to letting users publicly redistribute posts on the social network. According to a report from TechCrunch, however, Instagram is testing a…Read more...

Most people like the idea of having Wi-Fi available throughout their home, but in black spots at the edges of the hotspot's coverage area, the signal may be too weak to use properly. Rather than paying for more network hardware to extend the range, AppleInsider shows how to use a Mac connected to a wired network as an impromptu wireless access point.

Gamers waiting to get an invitation from Epic Games to try out 'Fortnite' on their iPhone or iPad can gain access early via other players, with current participants receiving emails advising them of the availability of friend invitations on their accounts.

The National Electoral Commission Sierra Leone has come out with a clarification to – and, an outright condemnation – of the news that theirs was one of the first elections recorded to the blockchain. While the blockchain voting company Agora claimed to have run the first blockchain-based election, it appears that the company did little […]

One of the latest experimental candidates for a male birth control drug is a compound that would be taken much like the daily birth control pill available for women. A pilot study presented Sunday at the Endocrine Society's annual meeting suggests that the compound—called dimethandrolone undecanoate (DMAU)—can be safe…Read more...

There aren't a ton of 60W USB-C Power Delivery wall chargers out there, let alone those with two extra standard USB ports, and Regular USB Ports', 'B079P11LBV');" data-amazontag="gizmodoamzn-20" href="this one from Auke...

It's been a while since we've heard any news regarding webOS, but LG is changing that today with an announcement about the platform.
LG has announced webOS Open Source Edition with the goal of expanding the variety of webOS devices. Developers can download the source code for this platform for free and use tools, guides, and forums to help them learn more about webOS. LG says that because webOS is a based on a Linux kernel with support for HTML5 and CSS3, it should be easy to learn for

Researchers at Northwestern University think they've stumbled upon an unexpected new use for the so-called supermaterial graphene: an easy-to-apply, safer, and sturdier black hair dye that could give other permanent dyes a run for their money. The new dye even made hair immune to frizz and static electricity. Read more...

Kevin Hartnett, writing for Quanta magazine: Albert Einstein released his general theory of relativity at the end of 1915. He should have finished it two years earlier. When scholars look at his notebooks from the period, they see the completed equations, minus just a detail or two. "That really should have been the final theory," said John Norton, an Einstein expert and a historian of science at the University of Pittsburgh. But Einstein made a critical last-second error that set him on an odys

Hoping to tamp down the furor that erupted over reports that its user data was improperly acquired by Cambridge Analytica, Facebook has hired the digital forensics firm Stroz Friedberg to perform an audit on the political consulting and marketing firm. In a statement, Facebook said that Cambridge Analytica has agreed to comply and give Stroz Friedberg access to […]

Continuing an apparent acceleration in the rollout of Apple Maps Transit data, Apple recently activated public transit directions across West Virginia, granting users in major metropolitan areas access to bus, tram and rail information.

The same way a human only knows as much as they've studied or experienced, an artificial intelligence is only as smart as its training. But unlike a child, you can selectively limit what an AI learns and knows, and then conduct fun experiments about how it sees and interprets the real world using its basic…Read more...

Less than two weeks before his death on March 14, beloved cosmologist Stephen Hawking put the final touches on a research paper about the origin and nature of the Universe. Some media outlets have been pouring praise onto the paper, saying it could be the most important thing he ever did. On closer inspection,…Read more...

Devices like the Google Home are billed as AI-powered assistants that can help make your life easier, but that doesn't mean Google's intentions are entirely altruistic. That little speaker sitting in the corner is listening to you, and sending at least some of that data back to Google, which is now using that info to…Read more...

After offering a $100 credit to Pixel 2 XL buyers earlier this month, Google now has an even sweeter deal on its flagship smarpthone.
The Google Store is offering a $200 statement credit to customers who buy a Pixel 2 XL with Google Store Financing. With this discount, you can get the 64GB Pixel 2 XL for a final cost of $649 or the 128GB model for $749. And with Google Store Financing, the cost will be spread out over 24 months.
The deals don't end there, though. Google will also throw in a

FedEx is the latest courier delivery service to bet on bots. Following a successful trial of five automated “tuggers” in a North Carolina shipping hub, the company plans to expand its use of […]
The post FedEx Proves Robots, Humans Can Work in Harmony appeared first on Geek.com.

Last year, Google launched Instant Apps, a way for developers to give users a native app experience that didn’t involve having to install anything. Users would simply click on a link on the search results page and the instant app would load. Today, the company is extending this program to games. Thanks to this, you […]

Slice up a photo of a dog and reassemble it, and you'll be left with two images of the same pup. Slice those photos up again, and somehow you'll then have four images of that doggo. It seems like an impossible optical illusion, but this neat trick is actually a very basic demonstration of how image editing apps work.Read more...

Obviously, Avengers: Infinity War isn't Black Panther 2, but it will offer fans of the Marvel mega-hit an early look at where Wakanda is at after the coup of Erik Killmonger. That includes T'Challa's loyal general Okoye, played by Danai Gurira, who's seen fighting alongside the Avengers in the trailers for the film—a…Read more...

It's becoming increasingly clear that Facebook has never faced a scandal like the one it's currently fighting through. Revelations over the weekend about its reckless sharing of user data sent its stock price plunging on Monday, and fresh calls for regulations on the social media network are looking more real than…Read more...

Depending on where in the world they occur, tropical cyclones are also known as hurricanes or typhoons. No matter what you call them, though, they're caused by the evaporation of warm ocean surface water. Norwegian scientists are now looking at stopping them, by using bubbles to cool that water down...
Continue Reading Could air bubbles prevent tropical cyclones?
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The first known object to come from outside our Solar System is giving up clues as to where it came from. New research led by Dr Alan Jackson at the Centre for Planetary Sciences at the University of Toronto Scarborough indicate there's a high probability that interstellar asteroid 'Oumuamua (1I/2017 U1) came from a binary star system containing at least one hot, massive star...
Continue Reading First interstellar object may have come from a binary star
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Earlier this month, Epic Games announced that it was bringing its mega-popular title Fortnite Battle Royale to mobile devices, starting with iOS devices and then eventually adding Android players to the mix at some point in the near future as well. It had basically one promise: That Fortnite Battle Royale on mobile devices would be the same game as the console and PC versions. That means the same 100-player count, the game modes, weapons, and even "console-level graphics".
The crazy part is ...

Facebook has been at the center of a hectic debate about Cambridge Analytica and the company's improper use of Facebook data. As a result, Facebook shares (NASDAQ:FB) opened at $177.01, down 4.4 percent compared to Friday's closing price of $185.09. Share prices are still going down after the opening bell. NASDAQ as a whole is […]

In a week when all eyes are on Facebook and the subject of how data about us on social media platforms gets used without us knowing, there’s been some consolidation afoot in the world of media-based big data services. DataSift, the London-based company that pulls data from conversations across social, news and blog platforms, anonymises it, […]